Publicly funded solar-powered compactors on the table

Jeremy Massey (left), with Republic Services, picks up heavy trash on Kirkwood Drive on Evansville's East Side as they get started on their first route of the City of Evansville bi-annual heavy collection on August 24, 2015.(Photo: ERIN MCCRACKEN / COURIER & PRESS)Buy Photo

Publicly funded solar-powered trash and recycling compactors – one option costing $43,000 – are under consideration for purchase or rental by Evansville and Vanderburgh County officials.

The Vanderburgh County Solid Waste Management District, a board comprised of elected city and county officials, has asked district director Joe Ballard to investigate potential alternatives to renting four dual containers – a litter container on one side and a recycling container on the other – for $43,000 over five years. There is also an option to buy from another company for about $29,500.

Ballard said he will spend the next several weeks canvassing manufacturers of similar devices in hopes of finding cheaper alternatives.

“I don’t know if ‘need’ is the right word – we 'like' this,” Ballard said, noting that local officials suggested it after seeing a public presentation on the subject.

Two of the dual containers would be placed in as-yet undesignated public spaces in unincorporated Vanderburgh County. A tentative decision has been made to put the other two in the city at Haynie’s Corner, which Ballard acknowledged doesn’t generate large amounts of trash.

“I guess we could (put the containers in an area that generates more refuse),” he said. “That was just an area we had talked about. It’s kind of a newer area. There’s a lot going on there. It’s pretty busy during the summer. I’m open to change if we do this.”

The solar compactors would not replace traditional trash cans currently in place, Ballard said, but would add to them.

The $43,000 rental option, Ballard said, would be “very cool – and very expensive.”

The containers are manufactured by Massachusetts-based Bigbelly with compactors for trash and recycling. The bins compact the waste and create more room using energy from the sun. That way, they can hold up to 150 gallons of trash, requiring collection no more than once a week.

In both cases, the Solid Waste Management District would be responsible for maintenance.

City Councilwoman Missy Mosby, that body's representative to the solid waste board, said people inevitably would put things in the trash compactors that the devices couldn’t compact – and that would generate repair bills.

“The city and the county would be responsible for any maintenance,” Mosby said. “There’s a history of people putting stuff in these things just to see it compact and see what it does -- and it breaks them and you’re responsible for it.”

Buying the solar-powered trash compactors from Ecovision would be cheaper, Mosby said, “but once again we have nobody that works on them.”

County Commissioner Bruce Ungethiem, also a member of the solid waste board, bore down on the maintenance issue during the board’s Nov. 14 meeting.

“In either case we’re responsible for the maintenance. How would we envision the maintenance occurring?” Ungethiem asked Ballard. “Who would? Would we hire that? Would we contract that?”

Ballard called it “a good question.”

“On Main Street, the city street maintenance picks up the trash,” he said. “In the (city) parks, (contractor) Republic Services picks up the trash.”

No trash collector has been identified as yet, Ballard said this week.

Mosby said Republic lacks “experience with this to do any repairs.” With solar-powered compactors, Ballard said, that’s true.

There is a much less expensive option, but it does not include solar power or trash and recycling compaction. For slightly less than $8,400, the board can purchase four steel-sided containers manufactured by Victor Stanley Corporation. Ballard called them “nice containers.”

Mosby said that’s the best solution. They’re just trash cans, albeit “real nice” ones, she said.

“We can have our city and county crews pick up the trash,” she said. “They want these fancy-schmancy ones that do the trash compacting and they’re solar-powered.”

But there is a mayoral push behind the proposed use of solar power.

Mayor Lloyd Winnecke, also a member of the solid waste board, told the board he “like(s) the options but I also like the solar component of it.”

“To me, that’s really compelling,” the mayor said.

But Winnecke isn’t pushing for the most expensive option. He asked Ballard to conduct an in-depth investigation of Ecovision’s dealings with other local governments. The solid waste director said that work has just begun.

The matter isn’t on the solid waste board’s agenda for its Dec. 12 meeting. No purchase or rental agreement can be made until January at the earliest, Ballard said, because that’s when his department’s 2018 funding will be available.